Peter S. Kraus is an American businessman, philanthropist and art collector who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of Aperture Investors, an asset management firm which he founded in 2018. From 2008 through 2017, Kraus was the chairman and chief executive officer of

AllianceBernstein AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and retail investors. AllianceBernstein's headquarters are located in Nashvill ...

(AB), a global asset management firm with approximately US$400 billion under management listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

as . Prior to that, Kraus worked for

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

for two decades. He is one of the largest collectors of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

in the world.

Early life

Peter S. Kraus was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in 1974. He received a master in business administration from the

New York University Stern School of Business The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...

in 1975.

Career

Kraus worked at

for twenty-two years. He briefly served as executive vice president and head of strategy at

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

from September to December 2008. He earned US$29.6 million during those three months, including a US$25 million

golden parachute A golden parachute is an agreement between a company and an employee (usually an upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated. These may include severance pay, cash bonuses, s ...

. He was subpoenaed by Attorney General

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cuo ...

for his compensation. Kraus served as the chairman and chief executive officer of

from December 2008 through May 2017, replacing

Lewis A. Sanders Lewis A. "Lew" Sanders is the founder, CEO and Co-CIO oSanders Capital, LLC a value-oriented investment manager serving institutional and high-net-worth clients. Formerly, he was the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of AllianceBern ...

. Kraus joined the

Axa Axa S.A. (styled as ''AXA'' or GIG in the Middle East) is a French multinational insurance company. The head office is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. It also provides investment management and other financial services. The Ax ...

Management Committee April 2010. He earned US$52 million during his first year. Under his leadership, both the New York State and Local Retirement System and

The Vanguard Group The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 13, 2021. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-lar ...

pulled their investments out of AB. For example, the firm's assets under management went from US$462 billion in December 2008 to US$402 in November 2011. However, ''

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' suggested he had "succeeded in pulling AllianceBernstein away from the brink of disaster and is steering it back on track." By the end of 2016, Bernstein had US$480 billion under management. On May 1, 2017, AB's board of directors announced that they had appointed Robert B. Zoelnick as chairman of the board and Seth Bernstein as CEO of AB to replace Kraus. In the press release announcing this news, Denis Duverne, chairman of Axa's board of directors and a long-time member of the AB Board stated: "We thank Peter Kraus for his service to AB and its stakeholders since taking over in the challenging environment of 2008. He has built a strong team and we believe the company is well positioned for an excellent future. We wish him well." Kraus currently serves as the chairman and CEO of asset management company Aperture Investors. A longtime evangelist of performance-linked fee structures, he launched the company in September 2018 with Assicurazioni Generali SpA, one of the largest insurance and asset management groups in the world. Aperture Investors boasts a disruptive revenue model, with management fees and compensation structures designed to align clients’ interests with their own. The firm charges ETF-like fees, which can only go higher when managers beat their benchmarks. Similarly, managers are paid modest base compensation and can only earn more when they generate outperformance, a major departure from the traditional fixed-fee structure in which managers are compensated based on the volume of assets managed.

Philanthropy

Kraus serves as the chair of the board of overseers of the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

, a private university in Los Angeles. He is also the co-chair of the Friends of

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...

, an annual exhibition of Northern American art. Additionally, he serves on the board of directors of the

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

in New York City.

Personal life

Kraus is married to Jill Kraus, who serves as the chair of the

Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman, Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, n ...

. They reside in a five-bedroom apartment at

720 Park Avenue 720 Park Avenue is a historic residential building in Lenox Hill on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, USA. A cooperative, the building has 34 apartments, a gymnasium and storage spaces. It is secured by a full-time doorman. Histor ...

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

, in

Lenox Hill Lenox Hill () is a neighborhood on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It forms the lower section of the Upper East Side—east of Park Avenue in the 60s and 70s. A significant portion of the neighborhood lies within the Upper East Side Historic Dist ...

on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City. Kraus purchased the apartment for US$37 million from

Carl Spielvogel Carl Spielvogel (December 27, 1928 – April 21, 2021) was an American marketing executive and diplomat. He co-founded the advertising firm of Backer and Spielvogel (with Bill Backer), where he served as Chairman and CEO. Spielvogel has conduc ...

. In 2010, Kraus and his wife were listed on the "world's top 200 art collectors" for their

collection. Art follows him in the office, where a sculpture by

Manfred Pernice ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction. B ...

and

Su-Mei Tse Su-Mei Tse (born 1973) is a Luxembourgian musician, artist and photographer. Her work combines photography, video, installations and music. In 2003, she received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale for the best national participation.

's video ''Les Balayeurs du désert '' are on display.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraus, Peter S. Living people Businesspeople from Philadelphia Businesspeople from Manhattan People from the Upper East Side Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni New York University Stern School of Business alumni American financial businesspeople Axa people Goldman Sachs people Merrill (company) people American art collectors Year of birth missing (living people)